The Oncoming Storm
by The Incredible Nameless Wonder
Summary: Lacey is very good at hiding things from her family, especially her magic. While attempting to clean the easy way, a spell rebounds off her TV and hits her. She wakes up to find herself stuck in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which she hasn't seen all the way through. With her magic gone, Lacey now has to find her way home and try not get involved. Good luck with that. Boromir/OC.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello fellow Ringers! My first attempt at a Lord of the Rings story was a personal embarrassment and so I took it down. I decided to rewrite it and give this story a proper burial. Hopefully it will be better this time around. I'd like to say thanks to my friend DiamondSword400 for being awesome and helping me out with this. Girl, you are awesome!  
**

**Anyway, please enjoy!**

* * *

**_Chapter One: Magic  
_**

_Once upon a time, high above the sky, lived the Moon. _

_She would brush her hair everyday, but not allow any of the silver strands to fall down to the earth below._

_Rooted in the Moon's hair was her magic, and everyday as she brushed it, some of it would float away._

_The moon knew that man was greedy, and would abuse her precious sorcery, so she kept it to herself._

_One day, a very long time ago, the Sun came to visit her,_

_She'd set her brush down on her crystal vanity and rose to greet him outside her palace made of Stars, but left her magical hair alone._

_The Moon had made an enemy of the Wind after saying she could not be beautiful because no one could see her, and so she decided that day to get her revenge._

_Her invisible laugh was cruel as she tore through the walls of the palace made of Stars and plucked a single silver hair from the brush. _

_She ran out across the night sky, her transparent hair flying out behind her as she rode on the breeze down to earth._

_The Wind also knew that man was greedy, and the only one deserving of the magic was the one beneath her feet; the Earth.  
_

_The Wind knelt, her clear dress getting stained by the mud, and she dug a hole. In it, she put the single drop of wizard._

_It was not enough to bring eternal magic to the odd, little planet, but it was just the right amount to give the Earth a will to survive. _

_The tiniest bit remained however._

_There, the magic sat in the soil, until many years later when someone built a castle and placed the crib of a baby girl on the very same spot._

* * *

Try to stand on your head.

Do it, now. If you can't, that's alright, if you can, excuse me while I clap for a moment.

Remember how it felt, standing on your head -provided that you did like I asked- because it will be of importance later. The blood rushing to your head, the ache in your palms, the feeling of being slightly crushed every second, keep it all fresh in your mind. Yes, that will all be very important later on because our story begins with a young woman attempting to do what you just did and failing miserably.

Perhaps if she had not failed, we would have no story. But she did, and we do, so please sit down and enjoy.

* * *

Just beyond the border of a small town, just north of a rather large forest and just south of nowhere, there stood a rather large castle. It was tall, impossibly so, with turrets and glass windows and a ripped, dirty red flag that blew in the cold winter breeze. Stone walls rose form the ground, layer upon layer, sealing out the chill. Each window as divided into exactly seven panes by dark metal. On a few of the windows were chips from the ice from hailstorms, which were a common occurrence. At night, they would hit the glass and making little _ping _ sounds, almost as if they were attempting to play music.

Brick after brick sealed in sound as well. Nobody outside of the would hear what was going on from the other side of the wall, one would have to walk all the way around to the large, creaking French doors that seemed to have a mind of their own. They liked to swing open during a snowstorm and stay firmly shut when the sweltering heat of summer would settle over the land like an electric blanket. They truly were a mystery. All was quiet that day, and to an outsider, the castle looked deserted, but on the inside it was hardly so.

If one would listen closely at the door of the castle that was pretty much falling to ruin in a sort of homey, dangerous way, one would hear the sound of a body hitting the ground every now and again.

Please, stay calm and don't alert the authorities, this was a terribly common occurrence. No beatings within an inch of one's life were taking place there and no one was harming themselves. Well, that was a bit of a lie, as Lacey Maccabee - the one who kept falling over - was in a great deal of technically self-inflicted pain.

"Great, jumping... fish!" She shouted, as she hit the ground hard, quickly scrambling for a word to replace the colorful adjective she had intended to use. She stood up from the warm floor covered with pillows. She was briefly glad that she has a fireplace installed, as it dispelled the damp and warmed the stone panels underfoot. She preferred to go shoeless around her almost-home, and would prefer if her toes didn't freeze and fall off.

She was a tall young woman of about twenty-five years with pale hands that grasped her right hip, the one that she just went down on as she let out a low hiss. The white flesh of her wrist extended up into slightly lengthy arms and fed off in to skinny, boney shoulders. Her neck was perhaps too long, but her jaw was rather nice. It was soft and gave way to high cheekbones that held aloft two light green eyes. Her freckle-dusted cheeks were ever so slightly pink from the comfortable warmth of her living room. "That hurt a lot more than the book said it would!" She exclaimed in her rather thick, Scottish brogue.

If the young woman had any friends, they would have probably said that she was very difficult to understand. Paired with the fact that Lacey tended to speak very quickly, and nobody who hadn't known her for around three and a half years wouldn't have a hope in Hell at attempting to decipher just what she was rattling on about.

She flipped her long, red hair over her shoulder, a feature from her mother's side of the family, and walked over towards a low, wooden coffee table where a book titled 'How to Stand on Your Head for Dummies' sat open to page twenty-three.

"Aha!" She said, pointing to a paragraph after she licked her thumb and flipped to the next page. "'There may be slight discomfort when you fall over on certain parts of your body. Don't worry, this is normal for a beginner.'" She growled lowly and slammed the book closed with a thud, shaking her head and pulling a few curls loose from the pins that held them back.

She whipped around and went stalking back to her pillows. She sat down with a huff, muttering rather rude terms and curses under her breath, directed at the writer of the book who claimed that he could stand on his head for an hour. The jealous part of her wanted to believe that he was merely exaggerating.

"Slight discomfort, my ass!" She said gruffly before placing her head on one of her most favorite pillows - bright red with purple polka dots on the front - and pushing against the ground. Slowly, she lifted herself up off the ground so that her long legs extended upwards and her feet with freshly painted red toenails to match her fingers pointed upwards into the air.

She let out a triumphant cackle of laughter and then promptly fell over on the ground. She managed to hit her head and land on her bottom when she made impact. Luck was really not on very good terms with Lacey, unfortunately for her. The woman resisted the urge to cry and kicked herself for being such an intolerable sap.

"Bullocks!" She cursed, feeling a bit of sadness as she knew she'd have to put more money in her vastly increasing swear jar and rubbing her head. "I can't do anything right!" She said so loudly that her voice echoed off of the cold, stone walls. She remained on the ground a bit longer, allowing herself to mope a bit and wallow in some very comforting self-pity before flipping over on her stomach and dragging herself across the cushioned floor to the remote control of her telly about a meter away.

Lacey never could focus on one thing for very long and so she contented herself with watching a bit of the idiot box to clear her brain. As long as she didn't end up eating the grocery store like her last movie marathon, she was sure that she would be alright. Lacey didn't have the time or money to go buy more grocery's, much less the next size up in pants.

She really did hate being thicker around the middle, as she didn't really have the time to exercise. When Lacey attempted to eat healthier, she would usually end up buying a salad, laughing at it for a few minutes, and would then order out for pizza. It was a vicious cycle.

She flipped on her aching behind again and winced a bit before flicking on the monitor with the touch of a button. The black screen lit up to show the channel that she was on the night before. Lacey grimaced as the name of an actor she didn't like appeared on-screen and she quickly flipped down to the telly guide .

"Let's see." She said as she scanned the many channels she had access to. "News. Infomercials. Oh, Game of Thrones," She paused a minute, her remote hovering over itl to get a preview and then shook her head. "Seen it." She told herself before pausing on one particular title that caught her interest. "In celebration for the theatrical release of the Hobbit, a marathon of the Lord of the..." She trailed off, furrowing her eyebrows at the last word. "Rings?"

She stayed silent for a beat, drowning the air in stillness and then burst out laughing.

"Is that really what Aaron was so hung up about?" She laughed to herself, throwing her head back at the title of the movie. Her almost-friend Aaron had raved about the trilogy all the time in high school; Lacey didn't really see what all the hype was about. Then again, she'd never seen it. "Well, I think it's worth a try." She clicked the 'okay' button on the remote and sat a bit a back.

"I amar prestar sen: han mathon ne nen, han mathon ne chae...a han noston ned wilith." Lacey cocked an eyebrow at the light, full voice and the words it hissed. She was unsure what it was saying, as her telly was old, and if the speaker was even speaking English.

"German?" She asked herself quietly, wondering if it was a foreign film and whether or not to put on subtitles. When the voice of a woman speaking in words she could understand was heard, Lacey managed to relax a bit, as following along with subtitles was always challenging for her. She remained silent after that, the only noise being the wind that blew outside against the walls.

It was ten minutes in that Lacey's mouth fell open and stayed that way. She was completely mesmerized by the beginning, the rich costumes, the wonderful script, but poor Lacey was not a very lucky woman, as I said earlier. Not at all.

"Grantaire, put that bottle _down_!" Lacey rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh as she heard her phone receive a text. The magic spell that the movie had cast was utterly broken and she turned away from the telly screen that showed a lush little village and an old man riding in a cart full of fireworks, full of regret.

"What is it now?" She asked as she quickly stood up and sprinted across the long, fire lit room towards the dank foyer. Carpets hid the dark brown mold that traveled deep into the rotting wood and her lips curl up into a sneer. Keeping the damp out was a constant battle for Lacey; one that she wasn't winning. On a low shelf next to her knit hat and scarf was her crappy, cheapest-money-could-buy cell phone. She flipped up the lid of it and grimaced as the bright light cut through the dim atmosphere. Hearing her movie in the background and wanting nothing more than to get back to it, she sighed and checked her message box.

"_Hey honey, dinner is still on, right?" _Lacey's eyes widened as her blood ran cold. She typed a quick reply back to her mother, ignoring how much she wished that a man would text her that.

Lacey's mother was not the easiest of people to get on with, to say the least. She had always been a controlling parent, but that trait had continued on long after Lacey left home for university and then out into the real world. Lacey was sure that night's discussion would be about finally settling down. After all, it had been over three years since Lacey had gone out on a date with someone. Her mother seemed desperate for grandchildren before she reached the age of fifty.

_"Okay, when will you be here again?" _ She typed back, taking her time, closing her eyes and praying that she would be able to buy some time. Poor Lacey could almost feel how angry the replying text was.

_"You forgot? Ugh that's exactly like you. I'll be there around seven-thirty. DON'T FORGET!" _ Lacey winced as she sent back a very quick apology and snapped her phone shut, her eyes adjusting to the light.. She could almost hear her mother's voice through the phone. It was enough to drive anyone mad.

Lacey gave the old grandfather clock on the wall a sparing glance before rebounding and nearly shrieking at the time.

"Seven-fifteen!" She shouted, almost as if she could not believe it. "When on earth did time start hating me?" She whipped around, running as fast as her legs could carry her back to the living room where the fire was still burning bright and horrible, scary-looking black things were chasing the Hobbits. Lacey didn't think to turn the telly off as she bustled around the room.

She had to get the place up to par by the time her mother arrived. She was supposed to be on a retreat to 'find herself', not hiding from her problems! Yet, Lacey was using her grandmother's old castle like an ostrich does sand when it burrows its head into the ground. Lacey didn't want to face the world just yet, or her deeply religious mother. She was the one that Lacey was hiding from, and the woman shuddered to think of what would happen if she found out about her little problem.

Lacey sighed and shook her head. holding her hand out. She felt a familiar tingling in her arm as the dirty clothes on the floor flew through the air and into the hamper. She reminded herself to take that to the laundromat next Monday. When her clothing was picked up, she focused on the pillows and sent them quickly whizzing up the stairs to her hardly-vacated bedroom.

Lacey spun around, flicking her wrist and adjusting the pillows on the sofa before finally whipping around, stepping over a crack, and directing her hand towards the telly.

What a big mistake Lacey made.

As Lacey landed slightly messily on the stone floor, her hand moved slightly to the right. The young woman took pride in her aim, as she intended to hit the manual 'off' switch, that is not what happened.

The faint tingle of electricity left her hand as usual, but she found it quickly returning as it hit the television screen and rebounded. Lacey gasped as the blot of magic was sent hurling back to her and did not have the time to move away as the magic hit her in the chest, sending her flying backwards. She felt her head hit something hard and her vision went black.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, mollyjr3, TheDiamondSword400, Ghost in the Computer and Rossi's Little Devil! I'm so glad you like it and now, we have chapter two! **

**I do not own Lord of the Rings or anything else mentioned here. All I own is Lacey and she's a bit upset about that.**

* * *

**_Chapter Two: Crash Landing_**

_The baby girl's name was Lacey, and her hair was the color of fire in the sun. _

_Every night, she would have the most amazing dreams about moving things without her hands, never realizing the miracle tapped beneath her floor._

_Eventually, Lacey grew to be a young girl who enjoyed sleeping under her bed to the horror of her mother. _

_They decided to move Lacey from that room and renovate it._

_They dug up the floorboards and Lacey cried in her guest room every night._

_One day, Lacey crept away from her new room and tiptoed down the hall to where she used to sleep. _

_The ground was gone and so walking was much less noisy on the dirt as she strode over to the place where her bed used to be._

_Lacey knelt in a similar way that the Wind did many years ago, and dug a hole in the ground._

_The magical hair had long since withered away, and all that was left was magic-rich soil._

_As Lacey put her hand into it, she felt a jolt of electricity and was sent flying backwards._

_When she looked down at her hands, they appeared normal, but when she chose to, she could do amazing things._

* * *

The ground was hard. Rock hard. Lacey found this out in a way that wasn't much fun as she managed to land on it; from the sky. That must have hurt.

"My spine." Lacey said weakly as she rolled over onto her stomach after hitting the packed soil. She cracked her back and sighed as something popped and the pain went away. She sat up on her jean-clad knees, wondering where she was.

All around her seemed so bright and yellow, if that made sense. Dotted around her were many, many trees and it took a moment before she realized that she was in a forest. It was not like green-leaved, broad trees that grew tall and proud from rich soil at home. Instead, the leaves were skinny and sickle-shaped. The pale trunks of the trees were skinny and smooth. It was obvious to her that she wasn't in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Lacey dug her nails into the soft soil, muttering about how real it felt. The grass was soft under her feet as she finally decided to stand up, realizing that she had no shoes on. She grumbled and took a step forward, wincing as she step on a rather pointy rock.

"Mother of..." She trailed off, grumbling as she took another few steps, being careful of where she put her feet shook her head and tried to recall what happened and how she got there. It took her a moment, but she soon remembered and the sound of her swearing her face off flooded the forest for miles.

She looked down at her hands with angry green eyes, balling them into fists so tight that her veins began to bulge from under her skin.

"I thought I had better aim than that!" She wailed half-heartedly, glaring at her hands. "This is all your fault!" She said in a way that stated she was close to finishing her pity party. Lacey looked up the the sky which was barely visible beneath the canopy of gold leaves. She shielded her eyes from the golden cascades that were made from the sun shining through the leaves as she surveyed the area.

Lacey thought for a moment and then glanced back at her hands again, which had relaxed from their tight fists. She lifted her arm and focused on a tree, intending to cut a mark in the pale wood, but nothing happened. She felt a familiar sense of of worry gnawing in her stomach as she tried again with the same result.

"Work!" She commanded, gesturing her arm towards a tree. "Work now!" Again, nothing happened. Hot, angry rage directed at none save herself coursed through her veins as she walked up to the tree and hit it with all her might. Nothing happened. She hit it again and again and again.

She couldn't be stranded, she just couldn't! She had a life, almost, she had friends, not really, but still! She willed her magic to work and get her out of here but to no avail.

"Are you kidding me?" She shouted at the sky. "What kind of fantasy land has no magic! I am done!" She let out a final scream of rage and then sunk to the ground.

She sat flat on the soft earth, picking at the blades of grass and twirling them between her fingers as she willed herself to calm down.

"I have to get out of here." She told herself quietly. "I can go find some people and ask them. Maybe I'll get lucky and they won't think I'm crazy." She said, pausing a moment later to laugh.

She looked down at her dirtied jeans and T-shirt, sighing and shaking her head. She ran a hand through her hair and found it to be dirty and matted with leaves, she could only guess that her face was a mess as well. Anybody who she encountered would never believe she had magic, especially because she couldn't prove it, not to mention how homeless she probably looked.

"Alright." She said, standing up, her anger entirely gone by this point.

She would have her work cut out for her with trying to get home. Lacey had never gotten into this kind of mess before, and nobody had ever tried to do what she accidentally did. When Lacey first found out about her powers, she'd done enough research to know that science and magic didn't mix. The radio waves emitted from a telly cancelled out the sorcery Lacey had. Finding a source powerful enough would not be a walk in the park.

"Should I go left or right?" Lacey asked, cocking her head to the side. There were two paths, one leading away from her and the other also leading a way from her in the opposite direction. After a moment of thinking, she shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter. Getting lost is a talent I seem to have." She closed her eyes a took a step to the right. Smiling brightly, she continued on down the path.

Night began to settle in as a strange, blue glow appeared in the distance. Being a fan of horror movies, Lacey knew that she would officially have no common sense if she went anywhere near that light. Only stupid girls did that and the stupid girls died first.

Instead, Lacey found a large tree nearby where she could make camp. The bark was rough against her palms as she clawed her way to one of the higher branches. She couldn't help but laugh at what her mother would think of her. The old bat didn't like it when Lacey climbed things. Then again, she didn't like anything very much at all.

The old woman sneered when Lacey mentioned getting away from the busy city five years ago. It was really her magic that drove her to leave, which she was only beginning to understand and control despite having it since she was ten. It was harder than she thought to keep it under wraps and she was certain that her mother would blow up if she ever knew about her baby girl's little "problem".

Lacey chose the castle she'd grown up in as her hiding spot and she hid herself well. She didn't own a cell phone for the first four years of her retreat, but was eventually given one by her mother as a Christmas gift. Lacey doubted it was more than a message than a present.

Lacey's room had been demolished after the little family moved away to the big city. A living room was build over the wreckage where magic still pulsed in the air and it smelled a bit like lightning. Lacey found herself doing everything is this room, as no other power source could be found for the next thousand miles.

The young woman learned quickly that magic was not infinite. She couldn't carry it with her, it existed only in structures or people in rare cases, and magic sources could be depleted as she was using it up. Magic wells were hard to come by, as the industrial revolution had tapped the ground of it accidentally while looking for oil.

Lacey still had problems with keeping her problem under wraps, as any source of magic no matter how tiny or easily exhaustible would be latched onto by her. The retreat made her feel a bit more in control and less completely insane, it was nice for her to feel that way.

Lacey stopped climbing and sat down on a tall branch, resisting the urge to look down. Lacey hated heights, but she also hated wolves a lot more and she was certain she heard a pack howling in the distance. Lacey shivered in the slight breeze and hugged her knees to her chest. Her feet hurt from stepping on so many sharp rocks and she could feel blood underneath her hands.

Lacey was not someone to cry when she got herself into sticky situations, but if one were to listen carefully, they would hear the sound of a sobbing girl high in the air.

_I want to go home_. Lacey thought as her stomach rumbled. _I can't believe this is happening, this is so not normal. _ She shivered again as the sound of paws running across the ground was heard by her. They were so light that she barely heard them over her own mourning of her predicament. Lacey didn't know that wolves could run so quickly or so softly, as if they were sprinting on air.

She covered her hand with her mouth to cease her shallow breathing as she huddled deeper into the crook of the tree. The bark was rough against her back and chaffed her in a way that would leave a rash later. Lacey honestly didn't care. All she wanted was not to be found out. She didn't want to be eaten, she didn't want to die. She wanted to go back to her castle and find out what happened in Lord of the Rings safe in her living room!

Lacey strained her ears for any more sounds and leaned a bit to the left. She heard nothing a dared herself to breathe for a moment. She closed her eyes and leaned a bit farther, attempting to drown out the normal sounds of the forest. As one may know due to Lacey's inability to stand on her head, her balance was not the very best. Any doubt that one might have had in respect to that fact would have been immediately erased as poor Lacey leaned over a bit too far and ended up falling from the tree branch.

She let a single, loud scream rip from her lungs as she managed to grab hold of the branch. She clung to it tightly, ignoring the splinters of wood that dug into her palms. She looked down against her will and quickly closed her eyes. Below her, she heard the sound of wolves getting louder.

The sound of footsteps ceased and it was not a very long wait before Lacey heard voices. They were high, clear and rich voices speaking a language unlike nay she had ever heard. It sounded Welsh. Welsh and... German. Lacey let out a muffled gasp which ceased the talking for a moment. She'd heard that kind of strange, fluid language before at the beginning of the movie but she didn't know what creature it belonged to.

Lacey dared to look down when she heard the speaking stop again. She wished that they wouldn't keep doing that. Their language was calming at seemed to dull the ache of fear in her stomach. It was too dark to see anything save shadows cast from the blue light that was glowing dimly on the horizon. The shapes below her did not look evil or scary. They didn't look twisted and malformed like the Orc things she saw near the beginning of the film with the siege against Mordor, nor did they appear Hobbit-like. Dwarves they were not as their shadows were tall. That left but one creature Lacey knew about. The people below her were Elves.

"Do you speak the common tongue?" A full, deep voice with a light edge finally said. Lacey opened her mouth to sigh at the sound of English. It felt wonderful to know that she could understand at least one of them.

"Y-yes." She croaked after a moment. "If you mean English, I do." She heard a mutter ripple through the small crowd.

"Where do you hail from?" The voice asked again and Lacey stifled a throaty laugh.

"Does that matter right now? I'm on the fence of life and death right now!" She let out a small scream as her hands began to slip.

"Be still." A new voice said. This one had a heavy tone. Lacey could tell that he held more power above the rest. "I am the Marchwarden of Lothlorien. What is your name?" Lacey opened her mouth to again ask why he wanted to know this when she was clearly in need of assistance but she then glanced up at her shaking hands. She had never been more afraid in her life and at the rate her grip was slipping due to her fear, she wouldn't be alive much longer. This new Elf was attempting to calm her, and she allowed him.

"Lacey Maccabee." She said after a moment. "My name is Lacey Maccabee and I think I need some help." She clarified, trying to keep the note of fear from her voice. The new Elf, the Marchwarden did not reply straight away.

"Very well," The voice finally spoke. "But you will have to do exactly as I say." Lacey nodded but then remembered that they couldn't see her.

"Yes, I promise." She croaked.

"Good. Now, as difficult as they may be, I must ask you to let go." Lacey stared down at the shadow with wide eyes.

"B-but I'll die." Lacey said, letting a few tears slip past her radar. The voice below her chuckled.

"I assure you that you will not." He said and Lacey shook her head.

"How can I trust you?" She asked in a suspicious way.

"You cannot." The Marchwarden replied and Lacey nodded.

"Alright then," She said. "Ground, here I come... again." And with that, Lacey let go of the branch and found herself crashing to the ground for the second time that day.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Thank you to Xylaphe, sousie, Lor girl, Rossi's Lil Devil, and IronLOTRgurl for your kind words, they are greatly appreciated. And now, please read and review if you have the time.  
**

* * *

**_Chapter Three: Story Time  
_**

_Lacey had no control over her new found magic to begin with._

_Things would fly all over the place and move without any physical hand to guide them. _

_She was scared of what might happen to her if anyone was to find out, and so she kept her secret to herself.  
_

_The years flew by and her mother grew quite tired of working day after day to get the family back on their feet._

_Lacey's father, however, worked harder than ever to support his loving wife and daughter. _

_He worked long hours at a business that did not pay him enough and more often than not had to drive home in the darkness, arriving after Lacey had gone to sleep. _

_One day, Lacey's mother received a call. _

_Just like that, Lacey lost her father. _

_His problems, the doctor's assured the grieving wife, were over in less than half a minute, however, Lacey's problems were only beginning._

_It began with a moving van. _

* * *

It's a funny thing, being able to appreciate the sensation of falling. Lacey missed it the first time around by reason of unconsciousness and was determined to enjoy it this time. By enjoy, I do mean scream at the top of her lungs.

The loud, piercing shriek was deafening as she fell to the forest floor. So loud was it, in fact, that one could almost hear the sound of glass breaking in the distance.

The cold wind whipped through her mess of red hair and stung her eyes until they were pink and watery. Her hands clawed at nothing but empty air, trying to find a foothold as she plummeted, she thought, to her death.

_I'm going to die. _She thought, trying to keep her eyes open. She couldn't see the ground and so she assumed that it was very far away. _Oh my gosh, mom, I'm so sorry. _ She said to herself, feeling guilt flood through her. Her mother would arrive to an empty castle and would wonder where her daughter was. She would never see her again.

Lacey was incorrect in assuming the ground was far away. A few moments later after thinking of her mother, she hit the forest floor face down. The whole world came rushing back to her in an instant as pain blossomed across the front of her chest and in her hands. She heard voice around her and she groaned, turning over onto her back for the second time. She was getting quite tired of falling from high places.

She gazed up at the odd people that formed a semi-circle around her, her gaze fuzzy and uncoordinated from her second crash landing of her time in the strange fantasy world. Her hands hurt like mad and she could feel blood pouring from the dramatic little cuts she sustained while climbing up the tree that got her in this mess.

She raised a hand to brush the fringe from her eyes and get a better look at her new found friends or possibly enemies. She didn't know if Elves were good or not, for all she knew, they might have hated humans!

The expressions on their flawless faces did not seem like ones of trust; that was for sure. The one with the deep voice who spoke to her first had cascades of silver-blonde hair falling to his waist and light blue eyes set into flawless skin. He held an arrow aloft, strung in a bow, pointed at her head.

Lacey felt a sudden urge to hold up her hands in surrender as she saw that all of the thirteen or so creatures were pointing weapons at her. Some were female, but most of them were male. All had light sliver hair and eyes in varying shades of blue.

The Elf that stuck out the most to Lacey was the one near the back. He was not aiming a weapon at her face, his hands were clasped behind his brown-cloaked back. He was a bit different than the members of his party. His hair was yellower, his eyes more teal than blue. His arching eyebrows were not furrowed with distrust or anger, unlike his companions, instead he surveyed Lacey, looking her up and down to see what threat she posed.

He must have found none on Lacey's face or in her odd attire, for he moved to the front and unclasped his hands, letting them fall by his sides. He looked her over one more and Lacey felt a subconscious desire to cross her arms over her chest. Lacey had always been a relatively shy girl, preferring to shut herself away from life and the worries that came with it. Books were her friends and she had many strewn about in piles across the living room floor.

She took pride in how she treated her books, especially when she was younger and her school librarian got rather cross when the little girl of eight attempted to teach her how to properly crack the spine without ruining the book. And yet, no amount of Harry Potter had prepared her for the time that she accidentally sent a book flying at a rude girl named Adele's head.

Lacey didn't really want to think about how much trouble she got herself into later for 'throwing things at other children'. It really wasn't a pretty story. So Lacey hid away under piles of magazines and books, contenting herself to make imaginary friends with character in them.

It seemed as though her silence was disturbing to some of the Elves, who she noticed, when she pulled herself out of her own little world, were staring at her as if she had some kind of infectious disease. Hidden just beneath the veil of calm on their faces was disgust, but Lacey had to give credit where it was due and acknowledge that they did attempt to hide it.

"Why doesn't she speak?" The light, airy voice of a female Elf asked in fluent Elvish that Lacey did not understand. Her green eyes found the lady's sparking blue ones, as she took in her long, silver hair that brushed just below her hips. Her bangs were tucked behind her delicately pointed ears, the look on her face uncertain. She whispered it to the male Elf standing beside her, who returned a quick, hushed reply. They looked much alike, Lacey thought. Perhaps they were twins.

The Elf with no weapon turned his gaze from Lacey to the two others of his kind who were conversing quietly sharing slightly mocking smiles that made Lacey's insides flip. She didn't like being gossiped about, as she was sure that was what the two were doing. The look on the Elf who was observing her was stern as his attention was pulled to the probable twins, but Lacey beat him to it.

"Hey," She said, earning their attention. "I'm sitting right here." The twins also had, Lacey found, similar looks of confusion on their faces after she spoke and it dawned on her that they probably didn't speak the... Common Tongue? Lacey thought that was a funny word for English and allowed herself to smile at bit. This seemed to offend the two Elves, who drew their bows higher in a more threatening way.

The Marchwarden, who's name Lacey still didn't know, held his hand up as if to tell his company to stop aiming pointy objects at Lacey's head.

"Alya, Ardan, that is enough." He said in that same, strange language that sounded like German and Welsh hopped in a blender. Still, at least Lacey knew her gossiper's names. Alya and Ardan, maybe they really were twins. The Marchwarden turned to the rest of his party. "Lower your weapons, it is not my intent to frighten harmless strangers." Again, Lacey didn't know what he said.

Lacey let out a sigh of relief as the bows were lowered and the Marchwarden moved so that he was standing in front of her. He looked a little bit imposing, but Lacey knew that he couldn't hurt her, he was just a picture on a telly screen. Hopefully she was just in her telly screen and not in every single person's who decided to watch Lord of the Rings that night.

"It is unwise to put trust in someone so blindly, stranger." He said in a surprisingly light voice.

"You asked for it." She reminded him. She looked around to see arrows returning to their quivers and bows being held safe at the sides of the group of people. "Am I allowed to get up now?" She asked, taking another quick survey of my surroundings before looking back to the Marchwarden, who nodded. Lacey picked herself up as he did not offer his hand to help, and brushed the dirt off of her trousers.

"Now that you are safe from harm, where do you hail from, Lacey Maccabee?" Lacey froze up. She had no idea where to say she was from. The Shire was out of the question, as Hobbits lived their, not women, and that was the only place she knew by name. Trying to sound casual, she rattled off the first thing that came to her mind.

"Uh, Winterfell." She stammered. "Yeah, I'm from Winterfell." It seemed as though that answer posed more questions for the Elves to ask than not.

"Winterfell?" The other Elf who asked her where she was from before questioned. He sounded like he didn't believe her. Smart Elf, Lacey thought. "I've never heard of such a place." Lacey mentally cursed his curiosity.

"It's up north, in Westeros." She said again, grimacing as the Marchwarden looked to her with an odd expression.

"Where is Westeros, for it is on no map that I know of." He stated. Lacey resisted the urge to just give up the lie and beg for mercy.

"Um. Across the Narrow Sea." She finally blurted. The Elves that surrounded her looked skeptical, but a shorter, younger looking Elf near the back in a faint blue cloak with eyes that were almost violet seemed to think otherwise.

"Haldir." He said, earning the attention of the Elf who ordered that the weapons be lowered. Lacey felt relieved to know the Elf's name. Haldir, she quite liked it. When he had the focus of the Marchwarden, the younger Elf rattled off a string of odd, presumably Elvish phrases that Lacey didn't understand.

"What did he say?" Lacey asked before she could stop herself. She saw the other Elves' hands grip their weapons tighter. They didn't know what she had said in turn, it might have been offensive. Haldir again held up a hand and they relaxed.

"Suidan tells me that land beyond even our knowledge is not an entirely impossible thing. He wonders, however, if you are telling the truth." Lacey felt a rush of relief and resisted looking to the young Elf in gratitude.

"You do wear a strange garb." The male twin Elf commented and Lacey was surprised that he could speak some English. She looked him up and down. He wore an odd, tan cloak that looked like it was made of tweed, light armor and engraved bows and arrows.

"So do you." She replied lightly, not really thinking about her words. This must have offended the twin, for he raised his arrow again to fire it at level with her eyes.

"Ardan, daro!" The Marchwarden commanded forcefully. Lacye could see that Ardan was a bit of a hothead who she should probably steer clear of. On the plus side, he again lowered his bow and Lacey learned the Elvish word for 'stop'.

"I sense that she is lying, Haldir." Ardan said quickly, his words slightly slurred from anger. Lacey could not catch any of what he said in what she guessed was Sindarin, according to Aaron. Apparently this was Lothlorien, home of Galadriel and one of the three Elf kingdoms. She found herself wishing she'd paid more attention to his passionate Tolkien ramblings.

"Perhaps." Haldir replied, his voice smooth and calm, his words foreign. "But it is not out place to pass judgement. There is one who will know if she is an enemy. Our Lady shall decide. If she poses a threat, we will deal with her." There was a murmuring amongst the party of Elves and Ardan looked quite satisfied.

"Then we leave now." Alya, the female Elf twin said, this time in the Common Tongue. Lacey loved hearing the sound of English once again, but the way Alya said the words with her thick accent dulled her happiness.

"Where are we going?" Lacey asked and it was Ardan who answered.

"Caras Galadhon." He replied smoothly. "By trespassing here, your life is now forfeit. You will follow me to my city and our Lady will peer into your heart. You have nothing to fear, as long as you have nothing to hide." Lacey shuddered at his answer and at the distrust in his eyes, but found none present when she looked again to Haldir.

"You will follow me, Lacey of Winterfell." The Marchwarden said to her and she nodded. She looked down to notice her hands were shaking from cold and fear. It seemed that Haldir did as well. "Ardan passes his judgement too eagerly, he sees what he wishes. Don't fear him, or any member of my company. You are a stranger, yes, but you are also a guest." Lacey nodded, but could not get rid of the knot in her stomach.

"Thank you." She said to him. "I'm glad I trusted you." Lacey told him quietly as they began to walk through the trees. She noticed how heavy even her lightest footsteps were compared to that of the Elves. They looked at her with disdain. Haldir did not answer for a moment.

"I hope that I can trust you in turn, Lacey." He finally replied, taking a blanket from one of the silent Elves that stood nearest to him. He gave it to Lacey and she wrapped it around her shoulders.

"You can." She said confidently. In her head, however, a little voice whispered _liar. _


	4. Chapter 4

**_Chapter Four: The Teller of Tales_**

_The moving van took Lacey and her Mother far, far away from the safe walls of their grandmother's castle._

_It stopped in the city, where to two unpacked the boxes and moved the furniture into a tiny flat. _

_Lacey felt tired all the time now, as her magic was all but gone. There was a tiny amount that still remained in certain places, like the park. _

_She would play there every day and when she was alone, she would practice her aim by making the stones on the path dance. _

_Sometimes, Lacey would find magic in people as well. _

_A young girl named Tish proved that to be correct. She was a vibrant young thing with a head full of black hair and brown eyes. _

_She never saw Lacey do magic, but at a sleepover, Lacey was able to lift all the furniture in the room because Tish's supply was so powerful. _

_Life passed as usual for many, many years. Lacey alternated from school and home like any other student who went on summer vacation._

_And yet, all was not well._

* * *

Lacey's footsteps rang out loud and clear for any enemies to immediately locate their position as her and the party of Elven Guardsmen moved through the forest. The company of tall, blonde Elves gave her looks of disdain at her sluggish, tired movements and she returned them out of spite. Lacey was tired beyond all reason and very, _very_ sore.

In her head, Lacey counted the weird things that had happened to her in the last day. She had fallen from the sky twice, had been gossiped about by two twin Elves, had learned the Elvish word for stop and was now being led through the forest to the Elf capitol or something to go on trial. Her life was great.

Lacey didn't really know what to think of the little voice in her head that told her that she was lying. It definitely wasn't hers. Something in her soul told her that the voice was good, not evil and that she should trust it. Then again, Lacey didn't really even trust the something in her soul. She was afraid of hearing the voice again, as while it was quite soft and not entirely unpleasant, it pierced her mind and seemed to see into her heart.

She didn't want to be found out and possibly killed, for it seemed as though that was what Ardan wanted, or something similar. The whole company seemed to despise her, except for Haldir, who had, thus far, been very kind. Thanks to him, she was no longer cold, although fear did freeze her heart and twist her stomach into knots of anxiety. It was not his fault, Lacey was sure, as he had been unimposing and nice as could be. His teal eyes held no distrust, which made her feel like less of a stranger.

Despite that, Lacey knew that it was not real. Haldir was a collection of pixels on a telly screen, he didn't have feelings, he didn't have the capacity to be kind or mean as she did. It was sad to know that, as it made it harder to be kind to him in turn. She thought he could not appreciate it.

Still, it was nice to be treated the way she was by him, as he had told her that her fear was unneeded, that the Lady was kind and would respect her privacy. She doubted he believed that she posed a threat, which did make her feel good. She'd always been judged on first glance. The way her hair sort of went everywhere no matter what and the way she preferred worn-out clothes as opposed to not made people make her out to be some kind of dirty hermit, which was almost true, as she was a hermit but was relatively clean for her kind. Haldir didn't seem to care that she looked very, very homeless while the other Elves turned their noses up.

Lacey didn't really believe Haldir when he said that the Lady of the Wood would not not judge her, as it was Ardan who mentioned the that she, Galadriel, was one who could see into her soul. To be honest, she wasn't quite sure if she believed Ardan either. After all, nobody could really read someone's mind, could they?

Lacey could barely stifle her loud shout of happiness. It suddenly dawned on the red-haired young woman that she was among the Elves, the most magical of magical beings ever! This Galadriel person who could read minds was surely a magic well! All Lacey had to do was focus, maybe, and she'd be back home in her living room before any judgement could be passed or harm done! Life could go on as usual.

It seemed as though her sudden happiness made Alya curious, as she found her way over to Lacey, who was still grinning like mad.

"Why do you smile?" She asked in a light voice and Lacey shrugged, trying to buy some time to make up a lie.

"I'm among the Elves." She replied. Alya's brown furrowed slightly.

"You have not seen out kind before?" She asked and Lacey shook her head.

"Nope." She replied simply. "Never." Alya gave her a proud look.

"The Elves of Lothlorien remain mostly to themselves, few of the race of Man has seen us." Lacey didn't really like her tone, but didn't want to argue and get an arrow between the eyes.

"Sure." She said, completely unsure of how else to answer.

"What is it you do?" Alya asked Lacey, which was surprising as nobody in the party had thought to ask her about her back story before now, they just assumed she was lying by where she came from.

"I'm a tale-teller." Lacey replied, picking a random job. "Songs and stories from far-off lands, those are my specialty." Alya looked almost interested.

"And what business did you have in the Golden Wood?" She further questioned.

"I intended to go to a city of Man, but instead, the boat carrying me across the Narrow Sea was hijacked by a band of pirates. They set a course for a new destination and I jumped ship. I ended up lost, here." Alya cocked her head to the side.

"Did you intend to go to Rohan?" She asked and Lacey nodded, deciding to take a chance. "The horse lords' do love new tales, or so I hear from travelers'." Alya said and Lacey scowled.

"Are all travelers treated in this manner?" She inquired and was rewarded by Alya's light laugh. If she was Ardan's twin sister, she had a considerably better sense of humor.

"No, Lacey of Winterfell." She said. "But not all travelers are found by the Marchwarden high in a tree with no horse and from a land that is unknown to us." Lacey could understand their treatment of her, but she didn't like it.

The rest of the short trip passed by in silence as the blue glow in the distance grew brighter and brighter. Lacey was lucky, she found, as she landed quite near the heart of Elvendom on earth. The faint gleam shone between the yellow trees, casting long shadows. The path began to wind around the trees, which grew progressively larger. Lights shone from inside some of the big, smooth trees and Lacey realized that they were houses.

Faces as beautiful as her escorts' peered at her from behind small glass windows set into bark and wood. Some looked wary of the stranger in their midst, most looked curious. All were lovely, however, and Lacey did not see a single elderly Elf.

She almost felt bad about looking as unclean and horrible a she did. Lacey wanted to rub the dirt off of her arms and out of her hair in a vain attempt to look a little nicer. She kept her head inclined towards the ground, she couldn't look at these people, if she did, even her eyes felt dirty.

Gradually, the slope of the path increased and Lacey soon found herself taking steps upwards onto large, suspended planks of wood that lead to the largest tree in the entire forest; right in the center. Glass now made up much of the houses as the homes got larger. Light blue gemstones were set into the uniform panes divided by bleached-white wood. It was so incredible to behold.

Above her head, Lacey saw that giant tree branches extended up like arms reaching for the sky. They held the same golden leaves that were now tinged with blue from the odd moonlight. Lacey had never fully see the moon. The skyscrapers of the city blocked out mostly everything, even sometimes the scorching sun, and at her grandmother's castle, the bright green trees from the forest blocked out the sky as well.

Lacey decided that she didn't like the moon. She seemed very vain and proud. As if to comment on her thoughts, a soft wind blew up through the trees against Lacey's face, pushing her hair back, out of her eyes. Lacye smiled, the wind had always been her friend. It poured through her window at night when it was too hot and always pushed her kite a little higher than that of the other children. Lacey was glad that she was still with her.

Eventually, the path evened out and became flat again. Lacey found herself standing on a large disk of white wood with short stairs ascending upwards in front of her. Plants grew from two pots on opposite sides of the stairs and a set of arches made a large doorway for people to walk through. Lanterns holding the same blue light swayed in the comforting breeze. Lacey found that the gust helped to loosen the knots of anxiety in her stomach.

The younger Elf, Suidan, left the company to walk up the stairs and out of sight. Lacey assumed that he was the one who would call the Lord and the Lady of the Golden Wood.

It seemed as thought Lacey was correct, as a few moments later, her and the scout patrol were joined by two new people. Suidan walked down the steps again to stand by Ardan as two figure moved gracefully behind him. One held the others arm as they descended, and Lacey saw that one of them was a man.

He had long hair, much like every other Elf in this city, and just like everyone else, it was silvery-blond. His eyes, however, were a piercing grey, and he looked at Lacey in a way that made her feel as though she were invisible. He was clad in robes as light and stormy as his eyes and he had a regal air, while he wore no crown. This was the Lord of the Wood, and the name suited him well.

The woman on his arm, however, was not merely the Lady of the Forest, no, she was the Lady of Light, for she radiated it. A soft, warm glow came from her pale, flawless skin. Her hair, like spun gold and much yellower than her husbands fell in waves down to her slender hips. A simple gold circlet framed her face and slightly pointed ears and instead of grey robes, she wore a blinding white dress made of no fabric that Lacey had ever seen. It was her eyes, however, that startled Lacey. They were as light and blue as the sea, and contained in them were all the stars in the sky.

She did not look through Lacey as her husband did. She allowed a ghost of a smile to pass over her lips as a voice again whispered something in her head.

_Welcome, Lacey Maccabee, to my kingdom. _Lacey shuddered as the voice penetrated her mind, digging deep. While the Lady was lovely, Lacey found that no matter how hard she tried, she could not trust the voice.

"Who is she?" The Lady asked in Sindarin. Lacey again felt stupid for not knowing.

"She tells us that her name is Lacey Maccabee." Haldir replied in the soft language.

" And what business have you in the Golden Wood?" A voice spoke, this time out loud in the Common Tongue and Lacey looked to Lord Celeborn. He sounded as though he did not fully care, as his words were almost lazy and slow. Lacey shook her head and simply assumed that he just talked that way. It took her a moment to reply, as she was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she had forgotten he had asked.

"Oh! I am a story-teller my Lord. The ship I was sailing from was hijacked and I ended up here." This answer made his eyes focus in on Lacey a little more and she felt her fear grow colder.

"And what land do you hail from?" He asked and Lacey had to remind herself to breathe.

"I am from Winterfell my Lord, up north, across the Narrow Sea." It was Lord Celeborn's Lady who spoke next in fluent English with only a slight accent.

"Suidan tells me that he believes what you say, for far-off lands are not unheard of." Lacey could do nothing but nod. "Tell me, do the people in your land know of us?" Lady Galadriel asked and Lacey shook her head.

"A few do, my Lady. The ship was taken by pirates who set a course for a different place, I escaped and washed up here." She nodded and then looked to Lord Celeborn.

"Do you have kin who may come looking for you in Winterfell?" The Lord asked and Lacey shook her head.

"No. They are all dead." The Lord nodded as if to say that he was sorry for her loss.

"And you are entirely alone?" Galadriel asked this time and Lacey nodded.

"Completely, my Lady." She replied.

"Very well. In light of the circumstances, would you be willing to be our story-teller for a time? The Elves enjoy new entertainment." Lacey's eyes widened and she nodded.

"My lady, I am homeless. It would be an honor to tell my stories to your people." The Lady's smile became a bit more pronounced, but the feeling of someone poking around in Lacey's head became greater and Galadriel's smile fell.

"I do not belive that you are a threat to us, Lacey of Winterfell, but I would like to ask you a few more questions." Lacey nodded as she felt her fear return. Galadirel looked to her husband and to the Elf scouts. "Leave us." She commanded in a light tone and they did so. Lacey took a shaky breath as the Lady of Lothlorien turned.

"My Lady?" Lacey asked as Galadriel began to walk back up the stairs.

"Follow me, for we have much to discuss." She said, her voice grim. Lacey nodded.

We do, don't we? Lacey couldn't help but think. She never expected the reply she got.

_Yes, we do._


End file.
